February
9, 2001
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The Shortness Before the Storm This special, extra-brief issue is the prelude to a normal oversized issue on the way. Gimme me a week or so. Thanks. |
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Apologies and Finger Pointing A substantial portion of the JOHO readership received three or more copies of the previous issue. This was not part of a Denial of Service attack intended to prevent you from receiving competitive journals such as "Wall Street News Interactive," "Interpol Online," and "Vixen Of The Day." It turns out to have been — and I'm quoting my Web host technical support person here — a "manual configuration error." I believe this means he goofed. We're hoping the problem is fixed. In the meantime, we have contracted with local firms around the world to haul your extra copies off to the recycling dump. We're sorry. |
Small Pieces Loosely Joined: An experiment
Yes, I'm writing a book. It's called Small Pieces Loosely Joined. (We'll talk about the subtitle in a minute.) I have to turn it in by August 31, and it will hit the stands in the spring of 2002. Perseus, the publisher of The Cluetrain Manifesto, apparently is stuck in some perverse macho loop — sort of a "Come on, is that all you got, girly-man?" type of thing — and has agreed to publish it.
I've been working away on it, posting each day's writing at a site that I haven't told hardly anyone about. But now I'm telling you and anyone you want to tell. You can read the entire work in progress as it develops.
Why and Why Not?
Why? Well, I've been saying for a while that the Web is going to change our work rhythm from keeping things private until the moment of publication to a more open and messier development process where we share work earlier. I hope that you'll kick the bejesus out of what I'm writing so that it'll be better by the time it's done.
Why not? I have lots of concerns about this experiment. First, it's damn embarrassing. I'm posting the crap I just wrote, knowing that I'm going to erase it tomorrow. Despite what you may think from reading JOHO, I'm not the type of writer who's happy to dash something off and post it; that's one reason I'm not a very good participant in online discussion boards, unlike, say, Doc Searls who's a brilliant poster and who maintains one of the best daily blogs around (http://doc.weblogs.com/), or unlike Chris RageBoy Locke who hits the send key before the last "fuck you" has had a chance to dry (www.rageboy.com/index2.html). So, I'm counting on you to read this stuff the way it's written.
Second, I'm not sure how disruptive it will be to my writing habits. And not just whatever time I'll put in replying to messages. Knowing that people can read what I just wrote changes the way I write.
Third, I don't want anyone writing thoughtful replies to passages that were written hastily and will be altered or deleted. Why waste your time as well as mine?
Fourth, it's really embarrassing. Really.
So, this is an experiment that may change or end at any moment.
What the Book's about
It seems to me that the endless discussions we have about Napster, privacy, IP, yadda yadda yadda, are endless because the Web is transforming a deeper set of concepts. So, suppose we were to treat the Web not as a technology but as an idea, like the idea of democracy. I find myself thinking about the Web's effect on concepts such as space, time, self, public, morality, work and spirit. And those are, in fact, the chapters of the book.
Here's an example ripped from today's headlines. The AP writes:
Amazon.com plans to allow publishers to nominate books for recommendation to the online retailer's customers, and to charge the publishers as much as $10,000 for each title that gets recommended.
Already this morning I've read emails saying that that's the way publishing has always worked; Barnes & Noble charges publishers to put books on display. But is Amazon a store? Is it a catalog? Or is it something weirder, for the Web is a read world. Once you move up a level from the technoid explanation that the Web consists of bits, what is the basic "stuff" of the Web? It seems to be made of a strange amalgam of documents and buildings: pages that we go to, enter and leave. What type of thing is a site? This is the type of question the book wants to address.
My basic approach is to argue that the Web is a new world. Literally. What's most distinctive of this world is how it's organized: many small pieces loosely joined. Or, more precisely, many small pieces loosely joining themselves. From this comes all the interesting things about the Web, including: It's got places but no space. It's a purely social world. It's a published world where to be is to be read, so that everything in it has meaning. It's a voluntary world. It's a public world in which there are (essentially) no secrets, which is having a transforming effect on business. It is fundamentally an optimistic, hopeful world.
The Subtitle
I've been playing with several subtitles:
"A Unified Theory of the Web": I intend this at least partially as a humorous overstatement that contradicts the title, but it may well not be taken that way.
"The Web's New Common Sense": Sounds way too practical
"Spaces, Places and Faces on the Web": Sounds good in the mouth of a Jesse Jackson, but a little too cute for me.
I'm open to ideas.
Disclaimers
There are plenty of disclaimers on the site. All I ask is for you to understand that these are drafts.
I urge you not to read whatever chapter is marked as "In progress." At least wait for me to finish typing and maybe even run the spellchecker on it.
I encourage you to use the discussion board rather than emailing me privately. If I'm willing to face the public humiliation, you ought to be also.
The URL
God save us all.
Editorial Lint
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